Supercharge your Computer!

There is no single upgrade that will improve your digital life more than going from a standard hard drive to an Solid State Drive (SSD). 

Our customers buy new computers as their old one was slow. Then they find out the new has become slow over the next few months. Sometimes a cleanup can help. But here's a secret. Upgrade you traditional hard drive to a SSD hard drive. Instant and on-going speed increase. Everything just starts and runs quicker. Many of our customers have described this as the "miracle cure"!

If you're still using a 7,200 rpm or (gasp) 5,400 rpm drive (Traditional HDD), you're wasting precious seconds of your life every time you boot up, open a file or a launch a program. 

Instead of twiddling your thumbs while the old-fashioned turnable-like head spins inside your hard drive, you can be up and running in your favorite programs, including heavy applications like Itunes and Photoshop, in just a few seconds. Boot up's can be achieved in around 10 seconds!

Another huge SSD advantage is durability. Because they have no moving parts, solid-state drives aren't susceptible to damage or degraded performance from vibrations or movement. Drop a system or laptop containing a traditional hard-disk drive, and you have a very real chance of corrupting your data. However, a solid-state drive will have a very real chance of surviving most day to day shocks.

Here at Optima, we can upgrade your current or brand new computer and give you super fast performance. If we upgrade your current computer, we will ensure that all your programs and data are successfully transferred.

Call us on 020 8445 6700 to book in your SSD upgrade.

Watch your laptop, PC, smartphone or tablet content on a big screen TV

Google Chromecast

Over the years we have had loads of customers asking us how they can view movies or other content on their PC's on their TV.

There have been many tech updates over the last few years which have addressed this. We now have smart TV's which let you watch some content from the web, and also set top boxes which do the same. But honestly, they are all clunky and difficult to use.

Apple TV is a good idea, but limited in what you could watch. It allows apple devices such as iPads and iPhones to send content from the device to the TV. For around a cost of £90 or so, this was a pretty good solution.

But now there is a new kid on the block - Google Chromecast.

Chromecast is a dongle which plugs into a spare HDMI slot in your TV. It costs about £30 to buy.

It needs power, so you can either plug the supplied cable to a USB port on your TV (if you have one), or plug it into the supplied power adaptor. You need to setup the Chromecast dongle to connect to your wifi network and to give it a name. This is done using an app from google. Setup is pretty straightforward. Once setup, you are ready to "Cast"

Chromecast supports sending content from most smartphones, so both Android (Samsung, LG, etc) and Apple phones will work. Same goes for tablets.

Any computer can also send content to the chromecast. 

So now you can watch Youtube, BBC Iplayer, Netflix, online videos, your camera pictures, your movies on your TV without spending a fortune. And the whole setup is elegant and easy.

Here's a video on how send content to a TV. It's so easy.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nLoiIKRjscY

Optima can help you with the setup if needed, so if you have been putting this off there are no more excuses! Call us on 020 8445 6700 for further information.

Stay Safe against the new Malware Threat - Update View this email in your browser

How to stay safe against the new malware threat What is this new malware threat? Many of you may already have read or heard about this new malware threat. All the press are reporting this threat. The National Crime Agency (NCA) has flagged this as a major threat. Their warning and response is here: https://www.getsafeonline.org/nca/ This warning is not intended to cause you panic but we cannot over-stress the importance of taking these steps immediately. This is because the UK’s National Crime Agency (NCA) has taken temporary control of the communications used to connect with infected computers, but expects only a very limited window of opportunity to ensure you are protected.   The threat Cyber criminals are constantly devising new types of malware to commit financial theft, fraud, identity theft and other crimes against ordinary people. The proceeds of their crime are also used to fund further organised crime. This latest threat is particularly insidious as it uses two different types of malware to infect your computer in order to commit these crimes: 1. A virus known as Gameover Zeus, GOZeus, or P2PZeus This is a type of aggressive malware which infects your computer so that it can effectively be ‘taken over’ by the criminals. It can be used for a number of different criminal activities such as viewing your files, monitoring your bank accounts, sending emails in your name and even using your webcam to physically spy on you. 2. Ransomware known as CryptoLocker CryptoLocker is a virus which criminals use to prevent you opening any files – effectively locking down your PC – before issuing you with a ransom demand. If you pay the ransom, there is no guarantee that it will be unlocked. Once your computer is locked, it is effectively rendered useless as you cannot access your email, files, photos, music or bookmarks.   How computers get infected You probably receive many emails claiming to be from your or another bank, a government body or other official source, urging you to check your account, claim a refund or other action. Many of these are phishing emails containing links to bogus websites, or attachments which you are told to open, which actually containmalware hidden in what is known as a Trojan. In this case, the criminals have also stolen or hacked email lists and can make it make it appear as if these are spam emails coming from a friend's email account. DO NOT OPEN ATTACHMENTS IF YOU ARE NOT EXPECTING THEM In this particular attack, the act of opening the attachment in such an email automatically ‘tells’ the Trojan to download the Gameover Zeus and CryptoLocker from a server normally located abroad, of which there are thousands which exist purely for criminal purposes.   How does the attack work? If Gameover Zeus cannot ‘find’ enough on your computer to make a profit for the criminals, CryptoLocker will take over, effectively lock down your machine and demand a ransom.   What you need to do NOW Your internet service provider (ISP) may have sent you a letter or email warning you about this threat. They will know that your computer is infected because the NCA – working with other law enforcement bodies around the world – has taken over thousands of the criminal servers and examined the records. You mustfollow the advice on this page straight away. Even then, if your computer has been locked down by CryptoLocker, it is too late. Remember that making sure that updating your operating system and software are good habits to get into so you should be doing this on a regular basis. Important warning about emails Cyber criminals will also exploit this situation by sending out further phishing emails claiming to be from your ISP or a law enforcement agency, urging you to click on a link or open an attachment for the remedy. You could also receive a similar email which appears to have been sent by a friend, family member or colleague, but which has actually been sent automatically by a computer infected with the malware and ransomware. Read our advice on spam and scam emails at www.getsafeonline.org/protecting-your-computer/spam-and-scam-email Scan for and remove Gameover Zeus malware and CryptoLocker software If you use Norton Internet Security, ensure that it is fully updated and shows a green tick in the icon in the bottom right of your screen. Run a manual scan from Norton and this will tell you if your computer is clean or not. F-Secure have an online scanner which can check your computer: It is found here: http://www.f-secure.com/en/web/home_global/online-scanner   If you are infected, or have any concerns, please contact Optima Computers on 020 8445 6700 for further help.